Sodium 5-nitrotetrazolate is currently generated by both batch (U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,623) and continuous flow (U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,253,288 and 9,718,791) processes. However, the product solutions generated by both of these processes contain various impurities at concentrations that render the solutions incapable of DBX-1 formation without additional purification steps.
Analytical investigations of both batch and flow process product solutions have detected multiple organic impurities including 1H-tetrazole, 5,5′-bitetrazole, bitetrazoleamine, 5-nitraminotetrazole, tetrazolone, 5-azidotetrazole and DTET, as well as several unidentified compounds. High concentrations of nitrite, nitrate, and other anionic species can also interfere with DBX-1 production—a problem in NaNT solutions generated by some techniques. Currently, removal of detrimental impurities is accomplished by time consuming, laborious, and hazardous techniques requiring precipitation, extraction, titration, heating, fine filtration and/or other inefficient steps. These techniques are prohibitive for high volume production of DBX-1.